zaterdag 31 december 2016

Yes, I still "do" fantasy!
As most of my friends know, I have a soft spot for everything concerning JRR Tolkien's Middle-Earth. Next to a extensive book collection, I also own many miniatures based on Tolkien's mythology. That I have so much and painted so little of them has everything to do with finding a suitable rulesset. Do I base them as single models, or multi- based? This is something that got me strugling for too many years. In the mean time, the collection of unpainted figures grew over the years. I now could field huge armies of Men of Gondor, Elves, Dwarves, and of course huge masses of evil Orcs and the likes. If I only painted them!
About time to make a good start.

This is a Troll or Olog-Hai command group of Gundabad, the Iron Tower. Which is visible at the banner and shield emblem. The models are painted individual, so skin colour is not excactley the same on each of them.

Castings are by the famous Mithril Miniatures, sculpted by the talented Chris Tubb. They are not cheap, but worth the money. Most miniatures are multi-part, but hardly visible, even without using putty. And mould lines are also non-excisting.

Next are a few new additions to my 15mm Hellenistic (Seleucid) army. The plan is to paint all the figures I have for this army, before I start something else (really difficult for me to stay focused on one project).

Some command bases first. Some of the figures here are Minifigs, others I think are QRF.

Colourfull painted, so they catch the eye between the masses of troops.

4 Bases of light mounted archers (Skythian). This is a mix of QRF and Essex miniatures.

And last (for now) a camp base.
Figures are Minifigs (guards) and Corvus Belli, now sadly out of business. The tent I can't remember.

The figures will be used in the future to play Armati 2 (optimal/epic) and To the Strongest, the rules by Bigredbat. For these last rules I still have a lot to do. For example, a phalanx unit is 9 bases (36 figures) strong...

Due to certain other things happening in life, which took more time then I had thought, my blog have been a bit on the back burner. But now, with the end of the year within sight, I wanted to show that I didn't stop painting. Though not as much as I hoped.
First part are some medieval civilians. Mostly Perry from the Agincourt to Orleans and War of the Roses range. The cart and the guys with the boar are made by Old Glory. The wheelbarrow is from Warbases (only £1.00! Really good value for money).

It took more time to paint them then I had hoped, but it is clearly not "rank & file" work. I'm really pleased with the result of most of them though.

Something else that finaly got a layer of paint is this Thracian warrior.

I got it from Karawansaray, the publisher of excellent magazines like Ancient Warfare, Medieval Warfare and Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy. I believe it was cast by Relic Miniatures, but I could be wrong.
That's it for now, but of course, there is more to come.

zondag 13 november 2016

Well, not yet, but now I have your attention, here are a few pictures of my Aureola Rococo dragon.
It is the smallest of the two that came in the AR range of miniatures, and since it was badly painted (with humbrol enamel paints) and slightly demolished it took me a bit longer to get ready for painting.

Both of the wings were broken off, so I "pinned" them in the hope they would be stronger then the original socket fit. I have to add that I'm not a hero in these kind of repair jobs, but it looks sturdy enough for the gaming table.

I did not have the correct rider, but an Elf with a weird looking spear from the same AR range would do.

And the result of my paint job is...

The colors used for the dragon are based on The Dragon Lord by Rodney Mattews. This artist got lots of other strange and weird things in his fantasy paintings, and I strongly believe many of the miniatures in the AR range are based on his art.
The rider got a pale skin color and a bright blue magical spear. Who knows what he can do with his magical weapon!

Anyway, for the time being this fellow will lead my Knights of the Silver Rose which were the subject of my former blog post.

vrijdag 2 september 2016

Next to the fantasy figures I recently painted, I also got some extra troops for my old 15mm late Seleucid army. I painted my first Seleucids when I was around 17 years old, and they were the core for the army. They all were Miniature Figurines (or Minifigs), as that was all that was available then to me. Later I added some Museum Miniatures but most are Minifigs. I planned a huge army, that never realised. The project stalled when the planned campaign in the club I was then member of ended before really taking off. Later I rebased what I had to DBx. And now, after all these years I added a few more, and repaired some damaged. These are the first 15mm figures I have painted in over 10 years.

I tried to paint them more or less the way I used to do long ago. Problem is I used Humbrol enamel paints then, and now only own acrylics. But you have to look really good to notice it.

Here are some pictures of the army as it stands now.

Maybe a bit overdone in cavalry, and certainly in cataphracts, but as said before, the army was never finished. I am thinking of painting up the figures I still have, but I'm not sure if I should buy more after that. I have plenty of 28mm to replace the same army. Yes, I am truly mad, having the same army in 15mm and in 28mm. Only slightly different in composition.

donderdag 1 september 2016

Last time I talked about my old Minifigs fantasy figures from the Aureola Rococo range. I have managed to paint all the Aureola Rococo foot Knights of the Silver Rose I currently have. I don't have that many of them, but they are as good as done. They are painted in a simple painting scheme, so they don't take to much time to do. All are individual based, but the bases are not ready yet. I want to do them all in one go, when the cavalry is ready too.

Pictures!

The first unit is a 12 man strong spearmen unit, with a captain and a standard bearer. The standard bearer is a halberdier which was damaged. The top of his weapon was broken, so he became a standard bearer. One spear was also broken off, but I was able to repair it.

This next unit (above) is something in between spearmen and axemen, as their weapons have a spear point on one side of the pole and an axeblade on the other side.

The captain is holding a heavy axe without spearpoint on the other side. I only had one of this model, so he became captain too.The standard bearer is the same model as the first unit.

The last unit is a somewhat larger unit of 18 models, I had more of these halbardiers then anything else, so they can be the guards, I still need to paint the edges of the flags to make them look better.

Next for this army will be two cavalry units. I want the cavalry ready before I try to get more foot troops. I would love to have a unit of those "Double action blow darts".

Here is a link to pictures af all the models once made in the range (Thanks Rudy G. for finding this link!)

By the way, what do you think of the new style pictures? I made a so called light box. I still have to learn some things about lighting I believe. The halbardiers pictures are made with a flash , the others without, but I had to make them lighter with a photo retouche. Something I did not use before.

vrijdag 12 augustus 2016

It's been a while since my last post here. There are a few reasons for this. Non of it has something to do with our beloved hobby of miniatures wargaming.
First there was a new course I had to follow for work, plus tests.
Then only a few weeks ago, I became grandfather, which is something special, I can assure you!
In between things, my wife and me also went on a vacation. So there was not so much time for the hobby.
I have been working on my Napoleonic Nassuaers, but the "painting mojo" left me when we came back from vacation.. Seeing the same figures for too long on my painting desk was the killer for me (were are the helpfull gnomes when you need them?)

Then I found some very positive advice on a set of rules called One Hour Wargames, written by Neil Thomas. I bought them on Amazon, and read them through in one evening.
It is a book with a few very basic rulessets and 30 scenario's, which can be used with each of the different rules. An army consists of a maximum of 6 units and minimum of 3, depending on the scenario played. You cannot choose which type of units you have. Just throw a dice, and check on a list what you get.
I made a few small changes, and played the first scenario solo. It was fun, and indeed, it is possible to finish a game in around an hour.

I played the game using my very old 15mm minifigs Seleucids and a Galatian army of mixed makes. These armies are both based for the DBx family rules (but mostly used for Armati, once they were painted).
I needed a few more, and knew I had some unpainted staked somewhere at the attic. And there I bumped into a long forgotten treasure. My very first fantasy army, made of the now mythical Minifigs Aureola Rococo figures. The Knights of the Silver Rose to be more precise.
These are at least 35 years old, and unfortunately, many were damaged and the painting was terrible, being painted by a young teenager (me...) with the only paints available then, humbrol enamels. It also seemd I used each and every different colour I had. So in a paint remover filled jar they went!

There were even some miniatures still packed, just as they were when I bought them.

After the miniatures are fished out of the jar (I left them two days in), the once-painted miniatures are cleaned with an old toothbrush.

While looking for a descent painting scheme, I discovered to my astonishment that they had the wrong horses! Mine were seated on the cool looking Elf horses (code ARH1), but they needed the much heavier and barded knight horses, code ARH4. Luckely for me, the correct horses are again for sale now, thanks to Dave of Caliverbooks fame (he bought the complete Minifigs range).

So, while waiting for the horses to arrive, I 'm painting the foot knights. I used a simple painting scheme. I don't want to spend to much time on them, but they will be nice when ready.

Pictures will come when the complete "army" is ready. That is around 50 foot and 20 mounted figures. Looks like another Dragon RAmpant army is in the making!

A few specials may follow after these, as I also have both the small and large dragon from this range and a few others.. So yes, I 'm painting again! but it is not Napoleonics for the moment...